PNG On Top
For Saturday, May 22, 2021

NOTAM. This flight is designed for MFS: it employs airstrips that are in MFS but are not in FSX-P3D. We have for a year created Saturday flights that are suitable for both MFS and FSX-P3D. But our current group of pilots are all in MFS now. And it has been quite a while since our FSX-P3D-only colleagues have participated. If you are a FSX-P3D pilot and want to fly with the group, please let us know and we'll immediately go back to a hybrid FSX-P3D-MFS design even if that limits what we can do. Good friends are far more important than any other considerations.

This is the first of two planned excursions in Papua New Guinea. Here we fly in the Bismarck and Finisterre ranges near Goroka. In the next PNG event, we spend time in the more primitive regions of the rugged highlands west of Mt Hagen. Both flights are informed by the terrific videos posted by Kodiak pilot Ryan Farran on his YouTube channel Missionary Bush Pilot.

This first flight is a morning up in the mountains. We visit Mount Wilhelm of the Bismark Range and then several villages along the Finisterre Range before landing at Nazdab in the Markham Valley.



We depart from Goroka [AYGA] which is a center for bush aviation in PNG. Our first stop is at Aibai Airstrip [AIBA] built into the hills near Yobai. With no room for error, the high altitude one-way short grass strip calls for a careful approach. (See video below.) We turn around to fly down to the paved runway at Chimbu [AYCH], a busy market town. After regrouping, We climb up to Keglsugl [KEG] which is a popular starting point for those who wish to climb Mount Wilhelm. At 14,793 ft, this is the highest mountain in Papua New Guinea and an attraction for visitors from around the world. Then down to Bundi [BNT] whose difficult forested terrain makes the region hard to traverse and makes the airstrip difficult to find.

We cross the Ramu Valley over to the Finisterre Range. Our first rural strip is at Guhu [AYGH]. We then drop down onto the Bismark Sea coastline to land at Saidor [SDR]. In WWII, this was briefly a busy USAAF forward base for fighters and bombers attacking to the west. It is now a sleepy unpaved general aviation airport.  We then ascend into the mountains to find Nankina [AYNA]. This is a fairly busy airfield for the transport of local agricultural products, including coffee. The short hump-backed ridgetop strip requires some attention on landing. We continue, flying high in the range, to find the partially hidden Dinangat [AYDN] strip located at the center of a large village. It lies in a short steep one-way valley at right angles from another narrow valley. We cross the Finisterre ridgeline and descend partway down to land at Kasonombe [AYNM] which is nestled on a hillside below Mount Sarawaget (also Mount Bangeta). Finally, we drop down into the Markham Valley to land at Nadzab [AYNZ], the small commercial airport that serves the coastal city of Lae.

Several of these airports will require some thought to execute a safe landing. Many of the grass strips are built on an ascending grade with only one useful approach-and-landing direction. The airfields with their preferred runways are as follows:

Airstrips and Preferred Arrival Runway
Aibai [AIBA] Rwy 22
Chimbu [AYCH] Rwy 03
Keglsugl [KFG] Rwy 32
Bundi [BNT] Rwy 15
Guhu [AYGH] Rwy 20/02
Saidor [SDR] Rwy 12/30
Nankina [AYNA] Rwy 14
Dinangat [AYDN] Rwy 11
Kasonombe [AYNM] Rwy 12
Nadzab [AYNZ] 09/27

Documentation
The flightplan (and a Pilots Guide) can be found here.

You might want to look at Ryan's Kodiak flight from Goroka to Aibai, our first leg. The title indicates some of the reasons to watch. Warning: The Most Stressful Landing of 2020. The Pilots Guide suggests other videos that may be of interest.

Aircraft
This is meant to give us an experience of flying local transport flights in Papua New Guinea. The best current MFS aircraft is the Cessna 208B Caravan. For our bush operations, I strongly recommend the Cessna 208B Improvement Mod by several contributors. The 2102.3 version is available at Flightsim.to and on github. [This bush-modification is almost "required" to handle the mission.] I'll fly the C208B in the livery of Susi Air.

Although different in character, some pilots may prefer a dedicated STOL aircraft such as the (fictional) Zlin-based Grravel. As ever, fly what you like.

Additional Scenery

MFS Scenery
Goroka [AYGA], Aibai [AIBA], Nankina [AYNA] and Nadzab [AYNZ] are recommended. Aibai is required (it is not in the default scenery).

For best results with these sceneries (and those in the next PNG session), you want the latest version of the following standard libraries.
Dave's Crooked Library, Dave's 3d Animals, Dave's 3d People, Dave's Seaplane base object library, Mikea.at Asset Pack, JHScenery Master Library and SDR Scenery Pack v1.1

Time and Weather
For takeoff on Saturday, set the simulator at 6:30am local for May 22, 2021.
Because we are visiting a number of small one-way mountain strips, we shall need reasonably clear weather with no more than modest winds. We prefer real weather. However, the PNG weather can be unpredictable: as a backup we can use either Few Clouds or High Level Clouds.

Multiplayer Particulars
Date and time: Saturday, May 22, 2021. 1800 UTC
Where: AVSIM RTWR Teamspeak - Casual Flights Channel
Teamspeak Server Address: ts.teamavsim.com
Cross-Platform Multiplayer: JoinFS. Latest version is here. (FSX, FSX-SE, and P3D and MSFS2020)
Microsoft Flight Simulator Multiplayer: North America East server.

If you want to help others enjoy the multiplayer experience, don't forget to enter your aircraft details on the multiplayer spreadsheet (linked here). Your courtesy will save others a lot of time and effort. Thanks!

PNG Caravan Liveries

Here, for the Asobo C208 Caravan, are some liveries with a Papua New Guinea "connection". Some of these are partly fictional (the airline livery is correct but the Caravan is not in the fleet) and one is entirely fictional. Also included are two Australians and one Kiwi to expand the set. The "Ethnos360" aircraft is the handsome livery that Ryan Farran (Missionary Bush Pilot) flies on his Kodiak. [I'll fly the Susi Air C208B Caravan.]

If you would like a "one stop" download, please look here.

Papua New Guinea: Ethnos360 Missionary Bush Pilot (P2-NTE), Highland Air Express (PNG), Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) TN-AZM, PNG Air, Tropicair PNG

Papua Indonesia: Batik Air (PK-CRV), Susi Air (PK-VVH)

Australia: Aviair (Western Australian Charter, Mining, Air Freight, etc), Skytrans (Queensland Australia charter to the northern tropics)

New Zealand: Sounds Air (New Zealand)

Brilliant! I've re, no, DIScovered the C208 now that I have actually flown the modded one. Previously I had been flying the UNmodded one becuase I'd not enabled the mod in Addon Thingy. 🙄

Sorry guys. It's a long weekend for us Canucks up here so will be heading away tomorrow am. Will probably be a bit awol from now until fall (except for some Wednesdays).  Hope all stay save and best regards to all.

Norm

Edited May 20, 20215 yr by nbrich1

Every PNG scenery from .to  in one folder for your convenience.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/135O-1Fuz-yGiqF7IepqD_SKJCAlflSK8/view?usp=sharing

They've already been run through the ModLib renaming process so should be ready to just chuck in and fly!

Edited May 21, 20215 yr by The_Moose

Brilliant!😎

One small caution. Aibai and Yobai are the same airstrip. You want one or the other. (Not both.)
Simpler (and IMHO better) is Aibai by Milosanx. In Stu's compilation, this is "airport-xaibai-abai-airstrip". You might disable "airport-aybi-yobai".

44 minutes ago, MM said:

Brilliant!😎

One small caution. Aibai and Yobai are the same airstrip. You want one or the other. (Not both.)
Simpler (and IMHO better) is Aibai by Milosanx. In Stu's compilation, this is "airport-xaibai-abai-airstrip". You might disable "airport-aybi-yobai".

Good catch. 👍

1 hour ago, MM said:

Brilliant!😎

One small caution. Aibai and Yobai are the same airstrip. You want one or the other. (Not both.)
Simpler (and IMHO better) is Aibai by Milosanx. In Stu's compilation, this is "airport-xaibai-abai-airstrip". You might disable "airport-aybi-yobai".

Well spotted!  I thought i'd got any duplication covered.. that obviously slipped through the net.  Thanks.

Looking like a great flight!  Lets see if I can pilot my C208 as well as I would my Kodiak (in the other sim..) 😉

https://www.avbuyer.com/articles/turboprops-compare/cessna-grand-caravan-ex-vs-quest-kodiak-100-112649

Edited May 21, 20215 yr by Bert Pieke

Thanks for that Bert. You had me seriously researching which one I should buy for almost 20 minutes before I snapped out of it!

Close call. I'll talk it over with the wife and get back to you. Do you have a card?

Edited May 22, 20215 yr by Ron Attwood
Fat finger syndrome

58 minutes ago, Ron Attwood said:

Do you have a card?

Bitcoin OK? 😉

Edited May 22, 20215 yr by Bert Pieke

Two things.

First, a minor point. Stu has helpfully offered us a very complete set of modeled airports/airstrips for PNG. This includes several WWII airfields. Include in the group is the WWII version of Saidor. We are intended to fly into the current quiet civilian general aviation strip rather than the larger WWII version. Not a problem here as they are pretty much in the same place. One dusty, quiet, and little used – and another well-groomed and teeming with imaginary B-25s and P-38s.

And second, if we're flying the C208B Caravan, let's pick a bunch of different liveries. (Your choice, of course.) That way we can test whether Asobo has changed the algorithm to depict other multiplayer aircraft. (When we have flown C208s before, all the different liveries have been displayed properly. It will be useful to know whether that has persisted or changed.)

That looks like a terrific flight! Have fun!